was removed from the field of
battle to a neighboring cottage, where they attempted to dress his
wound, and to provide for his future safety. But this humble retreat was
instantly surrounded by the enemy: they tried to force the door, they
were provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof, till at length,
impatient of delay, they set fire to a pile of dry magots, and consumed
the cottage with the Roman emperor and his train. Valens perished in
the flames; and a youth, who dropped from the window, alone escaped, to
attest the melancholy tale, and to inform the Goths of the inestimable
prize which they had lost by their own rashness. A great number of brave
and distinguished officers perished in the battle of Hadrianople,
which equalled in the actual loss, and far surpassed in the fatal
consequences, the misfortune which Rome had formerly sustained in the
fields of Cannae. [93] Two master-generals of the cavalry and infantry,
two great officers of the palace, and thirty-five tribunes, were found
among the slain; and the death of Sebastian might satisfy the world,
that he was the victim, as well as the author, of the public calamity.
Above two thirds of the Roman army were destroyed: and the darkness of
the night was esteemed a very favorable circumstance, as it served to
conceal the flight of the multitude, and to protect the more orderly
retreat of Victor and Richomer, who alone, amidst the general
consternation, maintained the advantage of calm courage and regular
discipline. [94]

[Footnote 91: Ammianus (xxxi. 12, 13) almost alone describes the
councils and actions which were terminated by the fatal battle of
Hadrianople. We might censure the vices of his style, the disorder
and perplexity of his narrative: but we must now take leave of this
impartial historian; and reproach is silenced by our regret for such an
irreparable loss.]

[Footnote 92: The difference of the eight miles of Ammianus, and the
twelve of Idatius, can only embarrass those critics (Valesius ad loc.,)
who suppose a great army to be a mathematical point, without space or
dimensions.]

[Footnote 93: Nec ulla annalibus, praeter Cannensem pugnam, ita ad
internecionem res legitur gesta. Ammian. xxxi. 13. According to the
grave Polybius, no more than 370 horse, and 3,000 foot, escaped from the
field of Cannae: 10,000 were made prisoners; and the number of the slain
amounted to 5,630 horse, and 70,000 foot, (Polyb. l. iii. p 371, edit.
Casaubon, 8vo.